{"id":394017,"date":"2010-03-05T17:47:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T22:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=71058"},"modified":"2010-03-05T17:47:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T22:47:30","slug":"health-insurers-are-making-you-an-offer-they-don%e2%80%99t-care-if-you-refuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/394017","title":{"rendered":"Health Insurers Are Making You an Offer They Don\u2019t Care If You Refuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(photo: trois tetes via Flickr.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sam Stein of the Huffington Post<\/a> notes a key bit of under-the-radar commentary from inside the health insurance industry this week:<\/p>\n

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The market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized in some areas that insurance companies are willing to raise prices and lose customers in an effort to improve their bottom line<\/strong>, a leading insurance broker told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, Steve Lewis, a highly regarded broker at the world’s third largest insurance broker, Willis, painted a picture of the health insurance market in which employers seem likely to be priced out of coverage. . . .<\/p>\n

Insurers are able to do this in part because the markets in which they operate have no adequate competition, suggests Lewis. . . . employers in many markets know “that they’re not going to be able to trade down pricing very significantly” (i.e. find cheaper coverage)<\/strong> and, as such, would likely only change plans or become self-insured if there was a “fairly significant” disruption in service.<\/p>\n

. . . The remarks are as clear an indication as any that while the health insurance industry suffered greatly from the recession it remains remarkably well positioned to recoup those profits going forward — principally because companies can raise prices without worrying about the market hit it will take<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m sure this is a problem that will clear itself right up once the President and Congress pass a health care reform package that mandates everyone to buy insurance. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

(See the Huffington Post<\/a> article by Stein for a full transcript of Lewis’ remarks.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Tags: Goldman Sachs<\/a>, Health care<\/a>, health insurance industry<\/a>, Sam Stein<\/a>, Steve Lewis<\/a>, Wall Street<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Share <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(photo: trois tetes via Flickr.) Sam Stein of the Huffington Post notes a key bit of under-the-radar commentary from inside the health insurance industry this week: The market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized in some areas that insurance companies are willing to raise prices and lose customers in an effort to improve their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}